


A Beautiful Life (Part 2)

by EmilysRose (orphan_account)



Series: A Beautiful Life [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-12-22 09:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11964888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/EmilysRose
Summary: A life in the day of Derek Hale.





	A Beautiful Life (Part 2)

"Daddy."

Derek hummed his response, knowing his little girl would hear him perfectly well over the sounds of Steven Universe blasting on the TV, his eyes still trained down on the paper's he was trying to grade. Papers. Reading over fifty essays on Faulkner's  _A Rose for Emily_ was not his idea of a good time, especially not while Pearl sang about unrequited love in the background. He loved Stiles and all, but he was a meddler. A meddling meddler who had no business signing Derek up for his English PhD while he decided to take a few years away from George Washington.

"It'll be hot," Stiles had said, running his hands up Derek's chest. "You, the sexy college professor...me, the doting housewife." He'd gotten that glint in his eye, and then out came one of Derek's old suits--his 'professor look'--as Stiles somehow magically found an apron that said 'Kiss the Cook' Derek could have sworn he'd never seen before... and well, an orgasm cemented one of the most annoying decision Derek had ever let Stiles's talk him into.

"Dad-d-dy."

"Yes, sweetie?" Derek asked, squeezing his eyes shut tightly, resisting the urge to rub them. Babysitting Boyd and Erica's Milo always resulting in Derek getting his makeup done--and he did not really want to get all the green glitter into his eyeballs.

Silence greeted him. Never good for a six-year-old, especially not Talia Hale II, who had her father's propensity for destruction. He looked over, to see her standing in the kitchen doorway, staring up at him expectantly. 

Right. He kept forgetting she only answered to Lord Voldemort now. Damn Stiles and his Harry Potter marathons. He sighed, tried to get the smell of nail polish out of his nose, and said, "Yes, my Dark Overlord?" When was the last time he'd had a decent's night sleep? Was it in the tiny ass office he shared with three other PhD students? No that was over two weeks ago. It had to have been when Stiles came home early from work and they both managed an hour or two of napping together in the same bed before Derek was headed to UC campus. Or, shit, when was the last time Derek had sex? It used to be a dark day when he couldn't enjoy ravishing Stiles at least twice a day. Now, with Talia and her adopted brother, Kip (Stiles's terrible, awful, life-ruining idea of a reference joke that Lol had found life altering) Derek was lucky if he got to even see Stiles naked once a week.

"I made mac and cheese," Talia said, her serious face on.

"That's nice sweetie. I didn't know Pappy was teaching you how to cook." How Stiles managed the time, Derek would never figure it out.

"No, Daddy--Pappy never taught me how to cook." She blinked, eyes serious and wide. "Daddy?"

"Yes, she-who-must-not-be-named?" Derek said, tired.

"The kitchen is on fire." 

Derek opened his eyes slowly. He took a deep breath in, but all he could smell was the nail polish in the air. He shot up out of his seat, grabbing Talia as he ran into the kitchen and saw--yes, a fire. A tiny lick of flames shooting off the side of a very bubbling pot of mac-and-cheese, too small to hold in the noodles, much less the water. And was that cereal floating at the top?  He sat her down on the counter far enough away from the stove top that he felt good about it as he grabbed water and said, "Where's your brother?"

It was a fucking grease fire. He ignored Talia's clapping as the flames rose up higher, turning a tiny fire into a medium sized one. "Daddy! Daddy!" Talia chanted, between claps. "I thought Pappy was the fireman!"

He turned off the stove, moved the pot, and shoved a lid onto the fire, waiting for it to suffocated as he leaned against the nearby counters, resisting the urge to shove his face into the wood. "Where is your brother?" He asked again. He still couldn't smell anything but nail polish.

"The Lightbringer is watching TV." She had her chin held high. "Can I have my mac and cheese now?"

"Sure, bab--Voldy. Sure." He turned, looking at her open, innocent face. She had his eyebrows--something Stiles never forgot to point out, laugh at, or tease both of them about--but she had Stiles's face. Only their nose was the same, sure, otherwise, she had Derek's grandmother's jaw, Stiles's father's eyes, Derek's father's high regal cheekbones. It was more the expressions on her face that reminded him of Stiles--the unbridled joy, the teasing love. Every time he looked at her his heart swelled. "I can cook the rest of it for you, and you can eat..." He looked at the pot. "Mac and cheese cereal?"

"With lots of gummy bears and yogurt," Talia said, grinning, her legs swinging on the counter so her little bare feet slammed into them, leaving little scuff marks. "Uncle Scott makes it for me and Kip sometimes, except he puts chocolate sauce on the noodles, not cheese."

"Yeah, well Uncle Scott needs to stop feeding you when he's high," Derek said, sighing. "You can eat it, or we can order in pizza."

She got on her thinking face, which was a lot like Derek's thinking face, and before she could reply he walked over, grabbed her in his arms, and planted her with a kiss on the cheek--and kept kissing rapidly till she was covered in the green lipstick she'd put on him. She giggled into his neck, screeching, "Daddy Daddy no! No! Shtop it!"

"Never!" He roared, pretending to swoop her down low, so her long hair touched the floor as he kissed her laughing face silly.

As he put her down, she preened up at him, her face a mess of green. "I'll ask Kip what he wants on his pizza." She said, proud.

"Pineapple!" Kip yelled.

Pineapple? Derek grabbed Talia's waiting hand and walked out into the living room, where both four-year-old Milo and eight year old Kip were watching the TV with a kind of rapt attention that made Derek rethink the ADHD epidemic. "Why pineapple?"

"Pineapple-pen, Daddy." Talia said as if she was forcing herself to be patient for him.

"What?"

"I got a pen," Kip said, turning from the TV suddenly so the curls and kinks of his hair glowed. "I got an apple."

"Apple-pen!" Talia screeched, throwing herself on the couch.

"Wapple-pwen!" Milo screeched, a fist in his mouth.

Derek stood there, watching the people he loved most in life confuse the fuck out him.

* * *

There was only one hell in this world. And that was bath time.

"Kip." Derek growled. "Why are you drawing on the walls?"

"Because Dad," Kip said, in his oh-so-logical voice. It was a tone that never ceased to make a random tick in Derek's eye flare up. "I am an art-teast." He flourished his crayons about, dripping soapy water all over the floor as he showed his masterful creation of green... squiggles on the wall. 

Derek took a second. He didn't jump in. He didn't start accusing or yelling. He pinched his nose for a second--and then he really looked at what was in front of him. For one, there was way more soapy water on the floor in the hall than Kip warranted. He was a thin boy, a werewolf who hadn't grown into his own frame, he was going to be unnaturally thin and gawky until his hormones kicked in at puberty. Not even water could stay on his frame. There was also little tiny footsteps of four-year-old leading back into the bathroom, and the green painting was very low to the wall. Kip would have had to have sat down to get the squiggles just right, and he'd been standing when he was drawing lines into the wallpaper.

Derek had gone down for two seconds--two seconds to grab his phone in case Stiles was able to call before he slept at the fire station... and only a four-year-old could cause this much financial destruction in two seconds.

He growled at young Kip, feeling the rumble in his chest and his eyes turn red. "Kip. Don't lie to me."

Kip put on his bravest, most Stiles like face. "I didn't lie. I am an artist." He pumped his fist against his little chest, creating a weird thumping hollow sound. "In my soul. It's how I identify with life."

"Alright, then I'll be straightforward. Did you do that?" He pointed his finger at the wall. "All of it?" Because if Kip had learned anything in his two years in this house, it was that word-play was a very real game. 

Kip's dark face grew a little ashy, and before he could reply, little Milo came storming out of the bathroom, drenching the already drenched floor in suds. "Noh! Bad!" He threw his little fist as Derek's leg, and Derek had to bend down to grab the boy before he fell on his ass in the water. "Meanie! Meanie!" He yelled, hitting Derek with his little fists. "Bad!"

Derek sighed. "Back in the tub, mister."

"Bad!" And then, horror of all horrors, Milo started screaming. It was high pitched and horrible to his ears. But Talia had gone through the same faze and Derek knew that he'd continue to do it, and do it over and over again unless Derek showed him what was what. Stiles had made the mistake of giving in a few times and now Milo screamed about everything. Stile wouldn't pick up his spoon for the hundredth time? Scream. Stiles decided to play dominoes with Kip instead of read to him? Scream. Stiles didn't make a funny face or give him enough attention? Scream. The sound was so distressing to Stiles, so similar to the fire stations siren that he was on high alert every time he heard it, rushing forward to follow the little devil's demands with a single minded anxiety.

And Derek, Derek wasn't having any of that shit. So he carried the screaming toddler into the soaked bathroom and into the tub. Milo sat there, screaming his little head off, his face turning red under his milano skin. Derek's ears continued to bleed, but he tried to pretend it wasn't that bad.

And then a scream mirrored Milo's out in the hall. He sighed, cursing bath time as he moved out to see Talia with her hands thrown dramatically over her eyes, wailing, "I'm bleeding! I'm trau-atic-sized! I need to be put into a mental instuition--daddy! Daddy? DADDY! He's  _naked_."

"Yes, Luna, that tends to happen when they leave the bath to criminalize themselves for their cousins." He gave Kip a pointed look, proving that no, the conversation was not over with.

Milo's wails grew higher, and more pained. Eventually he'd tired himself out. Boyd and Erica had clocked the record at fourty five minutes. Derek would just have to tune him out and trust that Kip would look out for him, liked he'd done the past two years with unwavering loyalty. Kip was a kind, dedicated boy, loyal totally and completely, and it seemed like he'd instantly fallen in love with Milo the first time they met. 

But Derek knew from exerpeince that Talia would never tire out and never give up till She got what she wanted. She might take a break to recuperate to plan ultimate destruction, but she's never quit. So he pointed Milo into the bathroom as Derek walked over to Talia, who was wailing about the indecencies of this and that, the delicate nature of her maiden mind--and Jesus Christ, half the words she couldn't even pronounce right. She sounded like the child version of Stiles' more melodramatic sarcastic rants. As he passed Kip in the hall, he heard the boy whisper, "Snitches get stitches, you'll get nothing outta me, pops." And the door to the bathroom slammed shut. Immediately Milo's screaming stopped.

Derek very, very much hated bath time.

He ushered Talia into her own bathroom, drawing the water to the perfect temperature and getting the Ninja Turtles bubble bath out. He patiently listened to her complain about the same thing over and over again, nodding as she said it was  _wrong_ to see nakedness, that Kip was her  _brother_. She emphasized these points very much. "You've seen Pappy and me naked before. And Kip. And Erica and Boyd. And Scott, too. Every time we shift into wolves, you see us naked."

"But-but Dad I'm a delicate flower!" She stomped, refusing to get into the water even when he tried to gently tug her towards it. It was a bad idea to leave Kip and Milo alone for too long, no matter how responsible Kip was. As Derek's walls could testify, Kip would only stop Milo in fear of danger and getting in trouble. 

"That's nice baby, get in--" She screamed in his face. Eyes flashing gold. Gums bleeding because of fangs that hadn't dropped.

He was so shocked he didn't stop her from running out of the bathroom. Instead, he sat in relivate quiet for a moment, enjoying the steam coming from the bath and trying to figure out what the hell had happened.

He reached for his phone and called Stiles, not really knowing if he was too busy to answer.

"Hey, babes." Stiles warm voice melted some of the toddler induced tension in Derek's shoulders. "I was just about to call."

"Long night?" Derek asked, turning off the water.

"Eh--probably not as long as yours. You sound beat." 

"It's bath time."

"Is it wrong that that sounds wonderful right now? Remember when we use to take showers together? Or when we took a bath together? Mmm... you all relaxed and soapy. That sounds hot. I miss that. I miss being with you. It's like we never have time to just fuck, much less get all romantic about it. Shit, I have to prep myself in the car before entering the house just in case we have to do a quick under three minutes--it's like Kip has a dad-and-pappy wanna fuck radar and he  _delights_ in giving me blue balls--"

"Stiles," Derek said, smiling.

"Hmm?"

"She screamed in my face." That was not what Derek meant to say. He meant to say something sexy about how he wanted to bend him over and ravish him. How he liked that Stiles prepped himself, though it was weird for him to do it in the car. He meant to get Stiles going, have him go into the bathroom at work to jerk off and maybe take a pic or two to send to Derek for later. But no, instead, he has Talia on his mind. He couldn't understand why she would just screen like that. 

"What? Tell me what happened." Derek did, and he wasn't expected Stiles soft laughter. "She wanted you to disagree with her. She does it with me all the time these days. She claims she delicate, you tell her she's a fierce warrior, a queen, a lion tamer, whatever. It's why I started up on the whole Voldemort thing recently. She wanted to be super powerful and apparently, even though Hermoine is OG--she's too... I don't remember how she put it. She wanted to be cool, she wanted to be Voldemort. It worked. Just remind her she's strong, and when she pulls this delicate princess crap, tell her to stop. I mean, she's a freaking werewolf. She's been seeing naked people left and right. Ugh. I swear, it's these kids that were letting them hang out with, the weird play date ones? They're infecting her mind with their weird views--or I guess their parent's weird views. Whose ashamed about nudity in this day and age? If you're ashamed you over-sexualize it and she getting freaked out thinking it's weird just to see Kip naked when it's totally innocent and-and I'm rambling. Just... lemme talk to her?"

"No," Derek said, smiling. He walked out of the bathroom and checked on Milo and Kip, who were having a good old time making fart bubbles in the water. "I think I got it. Also, who taught Kip 'snitches get stitches'?"

"Oh. Yeah. That might have slipped out. He's got good hearing."

"And what's pens and apples?"

"Wait, what?"

"Like, there was this thing about pineapples and then pens and--"

"Pineapple-pen," Stiles said easily, like he said it all the time. 

Derek stopped. He squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I'm starting to see that you are the cause of all my problems, Stiles."

He laughed, so warm and relaxed and Derek had to squeeze his eyes. Damn, he missed him. Maybe when the kids were out of the house and he and Derek had retired, they'd get on with their lives, see each other every day all the time... until then. He got stolen phone calls and precious, irreplaceable moments with the kids. "It's a meme, darling. I'll send you the link." 

Derek saw the back door was open. Talia often walked out to sit on the edge of the porch when she was feeling down. Sometimes shed jump off to make mud pies. "I should go. I love you."

"I love you too, boo. Text me and lemme know how it goes." 

Derek hung up, finding Talia on the porch, glowering up at the moon. Derek sat beside her, staring upwards. It was nearly full, and while it irritated the kids and sent their tempers flaring, it didn't really affect them yet. Their first shift wouldn't be till they were fifteen, at least. But it did make their bones hurt, their tempers flared, the metabolism to go haywire, and for naps to turn into "claw daddy and scream" time. He was going to have to make sure Erica and Boyd or maybe Scott took the kids this full moon.

He and Talia sat in silence, two Hale wolves and a moon. 

"You were named after my mother," Derek said, still facing the moon. "She was the strongest, toughest, kindest, and most bad ass Alpha I've ever met in my entire life." He smiled sadly up at the moon. "People respected her, she was elegant, no-nonsense. Strong. And you, Talia Hale the Second, are named after her." He looked down, to see his daughter's wide, teary eyes as she faxed determining up to the moon. "Every time you feel like you need to act delicate, or you want confirmation on how strong and tough you are, you remember where you come from. You remember who you're named after. You remember, Talia Hale, who _you_ are." He grabbed her, bundling her up into his arms. "My strong, capable, beautiful daughter who will not get freaked out over something so stupid."

She shoved her face into his neck, nodding tearfully. "Shower time?" She asked, as the wind started to pick up.

"Yeah, shower time." He got her upstairs and into the bathroom, trying to respect her somber mood as she got out her water-barbies to play. Then he checked on Kip and Milo, who had already gotten out of the tub, drained it, and were drying off. "You're done." Derek said, shocked.

Kip arched his eyebrow. "Duh."

"Yeh!" Milo parroted. "Dub!"

"Is she okay?" Kip asked, not making eye contact with Derek. He was a good kid, a better kid than Derek had ever thought he'd get when they adopted him. His parents both omegas, they'd died and no other Alpha in the area would take him, but Stiles had heard about a young wolf in the foster system and had put in the paperwork to adopt immediately. Kip had been shy, angry, resentful of the pack itself. It had been a worry for Derek, but Stile had been determined. After half a year, and Kip was still getring to know them and expressing his thoughtfulness, his sweetness. Though he mostly liked to be left alone, given freedom, he enjoyed Derek and Stiles and Talias company. It took time, but it was so worth the young man Kip was becoming.

"Yeah, she's fine." Derek shrugged. "Dramatic, but she takes after Pappy."

Kip smiled. "Yeah."

Derek nodded. "C'mon. To bed. You have a little league tomorrow, bright and early."

"No!" Milo screeched. "Meanie! Bad!" And the high-pitched screaming started, "No sleep! Never sleep!"

Derek scooped up the angry ball of baby, igniring the tiny fists trying to do as much damage as the screaming. He couldn't help but smile. He wouldn't trade this shit for the world.

 


End file.
